The Choices We Make
by Soul-of-Pure-Silver
Summary: Tamsin can't go through with handing Bo over, so instead of completing the runeglass, she forsakes her orders and takes matters into her own hands to do whatever is necessary to keep Bo out of Odin's grasp. Even if it costs her her life.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Alright, so this is an alternate story starting after Tamsin takes Bo's hair for the runeglass. I had started this way back in July and figured it should be posted before season 4 started.**

**Disclaimer: Absolutely nothing is mine, at all, I don't own anything from the show**

Tamsin was sitting on the floor of her apartment, morosely spinning one of her curved blades around her finger. It had been four nights since the night she'd stolen the hair from Bo's head, four nights since she'd had everything she needed on her end to complete the runeglass. She hadn't seen any of the Happy Sunshine Gang since then, dodging all of their calls and attempts at contact.

Drawing up a leg, she leaned her head against the wall and surveyed her apartment, the one that had been provided to her by god knows who. Whoever it was that had decided to station her here. Setting the bottle of alcohol against one knee, she slumped farther down the wall to contemplate the ceiling. She wasn't even drunk anymore, and her hangover had receded, now she was just holding the bottle. It was a familiar source of comfort, one that had scarcely changed over the years. Her mind was buzzing, and the fog that set in shortly after she had taken Bo's hair was being frustratingly inconsistent.

Through half-lidded eyes, she turned her head to take in the disaster surrounding her. It was fitting, really. An excellent representation of what was left of her life. About two days ago, after the initial breakdown that had left her sobbing in a corner, she had trashed everything she could get her hands on, and she just couldn't be troubled to clear away the resulting debris. Wasn't like it mattered anyways. She wouldn't be here for much longer.

She dropped the blade to the floor and lifted her arm up to cover her face, suddenly realising that she was cold. She wanted a blanket. No, she wanted something warmer. Something – she shook her head when she pinpointed it. She wanted somebody there with her. Stone-hearted Valkyrie with the ability to raze a battlefield, but all she wanted now was a friend.

Loneliness gripped every part of her being, filling her up from the inside, but she just shook her head violently. Tamsin knew loneliness. She had been alive for over a millennia, and in that time there hadn't been many people she could call friends. It would be impossible for her not to be familiar with the sensation of being alone. But she had never had anything this close to belonging. To having something she could keep and call her own. To having friends like this. To someone like Bo. It had changed her, knowing that damn succubus, and she really wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

All she knew was that she couldn't betray Bo, but not completing her orders wasn't an option either. She needed to figure out what she was going to do, and she was running out of time. Odin was expecting her.

* * *

She went back to the crack shack, still not really sure about what her plan was. All she knew was that she couldn't go through with her mission, not anymore. She got out of her truck and looked at the flimsy exterior to the building that Bo called a home. Shuffling her feet, she wondered when the last time she had felt this uncertain about anything had been.

Never. Not even during World War I, where the literal fate of the entire world had rested on her single decision.

But at least she knew why she had come back here. She couldn't just leave. Bo deserved better than that.

Then she scoffed at her own statement, because Bo deserved better than what she was going to get. It was all because of Tamsin that she was going to be on the receiving end of the shitstorm coming her way, but the very least thing she could do was tell her to her face, instead of just up and leaving.

She tried to steel herself to go inside, but couldn't bring her feet to move. She frowned fiercely, berating herself for her hesitation. She had never been the type of person to be indecisive about anything, and yet here she was, loitering around outside a decrepit old warehouse building.

Too late, she heard footsteps approaching. It was Bo, a look of confusion across her face. "Tamsin? What are you doing out here?" The succubus' eyes glanced over her appearance before searching her eyes. "Is something wrong? Where've you been the last couple of days?" The brunette paused. "We've been trying to call you," she offered, the concerned tone of her voice doing nothing to dispel the knot of anxiety in her stomach, and suddenly Tamsin wanted to cry.

She kept her head angled away from Bo and shuffled her feet, knowing that her outward appearance wasn't exactly what the other woman was accustomed to.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her head. "Bo, I gotta tell you something." She hesitated again. _Damn it_. "You aren't going to like it."

"Okay," Bo responded cautiously, and Tamsin felt like smacking herself in the face. There was still trust shining in Bo's eyes, and Tamsin knew that she was about to smash it to pieces. The first person who had had any faith in her for centuries, and she was going to ruin it. Trust didn't come easily when you were a Valkyrie, and Tamsin hadn't even noticed how awful it had been to have that feeling, that knowledge that nobody would ever believe in her sitting in her chest for all those years.

And she realised now, she didn't _want_ to destroy it, didn't want to prove to everyone that they were wrong to put their faith in her. But the part that really hurt was that she knew they had been wrong. They were foolish to trust her, and she should have never let herself get so attached. She had never been worthy enough to be accepted into this wonderful ragtag family. She didn't want to see the look of confusion and betrayal that she had caused so many times on Bo's face. She especially didn't want to see it directed at her.

She didn't really want any of this at all. And she opened her mouth and told Bo everything.

* * *

"Dyson just listen to me!" she yelled frantically into her phone. "I'm just trying to warn you, please, just listen."

"Why'd you call me Tamsin?"

Tamsin squeezed her eyes shut. Her confession to Bo hadn't gone well. Or maybe it had, she wasn't sure. Deep down, she had been expecting a lot worse. It had gotten to the point where she had been honestly preparing to fend off a physical attack.

_Because that's what I do_, she thought bitterly. _Look out for myself first, and don't give a rat's ass about what happens to anybody else._ The self-preservation instinct was one of the first things a Valkyrie is taught to listen to. You look out for yourself, and screw the rest. They weren't supposed to care about anybody else, because caring for somebody meant you had a weakness. Valkyries certainly weren't supposed to fall for anybody, especially not stubborn succubi who saw good everywhere they looked and didn't know when to give up.

"Because – I… I knew the others wouldn't listen to me." Tamsin closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall, "And – because we used to be partners, D-man. I just –" She grew frustrated with herself. "Look, this isn't why I called."

"Is it true, Tamsin? What Bo said, that you were just sent here to bring her in." She could hear the steel in his voice, could picture his eyes flashing in her mind. She'd seen it enough times, aimed at those intending to hurt the ones he cared about.

"Hey, look, I know I'm a piece of shit okay? I know exactly what I did, and you know it, and everybody knows it. But I wasn't – I wouldn't –" The blonde gritted her teeth and pressed a hand against her eye. "I couldn't do it, I _can't do it_." She tried to calm her breathing, mentally swearing that if she broke down while she was on the phone she was just going to shoot herself and save everyone the trouble. She just had to tell him what he needed to know, and then she was out of here.

"There's just a couple more things I need to tell you, okay? Just a couple minutes and then you can hang up on me." There was no sound on the other end of the line, so she just forged ahead. "I'm sure you and the happy sunshine gang know this by now, but it was Odin who sent me."

"Yeah." His gruff response was a good sign; his answering probably meant that he wouldn't hang up before she'd said her piece.

"Well, I don't know how much detail you have, but you're going to need more than that if you want any chance of beating him. He's Bo's _father_, and I don't know why, but I've worked for him for a long time, and he's never been this hell-bent on _anything_. Dyson, he wants Bo, and I don't know what for, but whatever it is it isn't good."

"So why didn't you just tell us? Give us this information before you _betray_ us, and we could've found a way to stop him together." Tamsin had no response to this. No matter how good they were, they couldn't just _stop_ one of the oldest gods of this world. It wasn't that simple. "Even staying to fight with us now would be better than just disappearing on us."

She laughed hollowly. "Like you guys would trust me enough to be by your side now." She shook her head. It had always been considered a great honour to be trusted enough to fight side by side with great warriors, even greater when fighting for a noble cause. But she wasn't great anymore. Maybe she never had been, not really. Sure, she had always been _good,_ nobody could argue that, but she'd never done anything to merit more than that.

She sighed, wishing he could figure out what she was trying to say so she could just _leave_. "No, look, you don't understand. I disobeyed him, and my life is forfeit. Once he realises I have no intention of delivering Bo, he's going to come after me, and I can't be anywhere near here when he does. I'm leaving tonight, Dyson. I don't know where, but it's going to be somewhere far, far away." She shrugged even though he couldn't see her. "This is the only way I can protect – protect all of you guys." She stumbled over the sentence, unsure of how she meant to finish it. Shaking her head, she moved on.

"But he will catch me, and once he's taken care of me, he's going to come for Bo himself. He won't send another Valkyrie, I'm the best he had, and other than that his choices are pretty shitty. But all that just means the Scooby gang is going to have to face him head on.

"I know what I did, and this is all I can do to try and make it right. He won't let me go free, not after disobeying him like this. No, he's going to hunt me down and make an example out of me, send a message to any other potential deserters." It surprised Tamsin how blasé she sounded describing her own inevitable slow and tortuous death.

"When he's done that, he's coming straight for Bo, and you guys have to be ready for him. All I can do is buy you is some time, lead him on a merry little goose chase before he catches up. I've got a plan, and there'll be false traces of me popping up all over the world soon, credit card bills, security alerts, even aura displacements, anything he could use to track me. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. He'll have to follow these traces, but no one can escape him forever. He's going to get me eventually."

She paused here. It was strange feeling, knowing that her life was essentially over. Surprisingly, it was a different feeling from knowing that she was approaching the end of her life cycle. Either way, if she was going to die, she was glad it would be protecting Bo.

"I've bought you two more weeks at most, so you guys had better be ready for the shitstorm when it hits you." Tamsin stopped, unsure of what else she could say, but she knew that this might be her last chance, and she had to at least try and make him understand why she'd let this happen, maybe even make him understand just how screwed up she actually was. _Maybe they could even forgive her one day. _But Tamsin brushed away the foolish thought.

"I know what I've done, I understand, I really do, and you can't possibly hate me more than I hate myself. My life is over, my time is up, but I'm going to protect her with everything that I've got left, for as long as I can, you have my word." And she knew that right now, to the man on the other end of the phone, her word didn't mean a whole lot, maybe it never really did, but she's offering it anyways. "I'll spend whatever life I've got left protecting you guys."

"You love her, don't you?" It was phrased as a question, but underneath, she could hear his resignation. He knew, probably had for a while too, so she definitely hadn't been as subtle as she would have liked.

"Yeah," she blinked at the tips of her shoes, noting the scuffs on them, "I guess I do." As the words left her mouth, her throat felt like it was starting to close up, and she found herself furiously blinking back tears. He didn't know the weight a Valkyrie's love carried, but she did, and it fucking hurt. It tore at her soul in a way that she had never felt before, and probably never would again.

Hell, there wasn't a probably there. If she lived another ten thousand years, she wouldn't meet anyone like Bo, and at the moment her expected lifespan was hovering around a few weeks.

"You'll take care of her?" There's a waver in her voice, but Tamsin didn't bother to try and hide it.

"Always will, partner." The last word draws a surprised intake of breath for her, and there are tears in her eyes again. He called her partner to show that he was still in her corner, even if it was just in the spirit of the word. He hadn't turned his back on her.

"Thank you – Dyson," she curled her fingers in the hair hanging limply over her shoulder, tugging at it half heartedly. She was already dead, she didn't need her stupid pride anymore. "For-for everything."

She heard him smile wryly through the phone. "Happy to do it. And hey –" she heard a catch in his voice. "If, you know, by some miracle, you do come back from this," Tamsin scoffs at the words, and he chuckled in return. "I'm serious, you can't hang around Bo and not start expecting miracles at every turn. If you do come back – you'll be welcomed. At the very least by me, and I'll make sure the others know of what you're doing."

She took in a shuddering breath. "Well then, I guess I'll catch you on the flip side." _I'm not going to see any of you ever again_.

"Goodbye, Tamsin." She nodded once and hung up before she said something embarrassing or started blubbering like a fool. Dyson would tell them about Odin, so now it was time for her curtain call.

She felt like a dust cloud had exploded in her brain, making everything hazy and indistinguishable, but she pushed herself to her feet, trying to shake herself into a more alert frame of mind. Here was where the chase began, and if there was ever a time where she needed to be on her game, it was now. It was strange, reorienting her goals like this. She was no longer fighting for her own life; she wasn't fighting for herself at all. The goal now was to just stay away – stay alive – for as long as possible.

Now standing tall, she narrowed her eyes and squared her shoulders, surveying this apartment for the last time. She was good. She could do this. Step 1 – Keep Odin away from Bo. The only way to do that was to distract him, give him another target. That was all she had to do, and that was all she was going to do. She was going to buy Bo the time she needed, and she was going to die trying.

**A/N: There's a second part that will be uploaded within a few days, I split it up just because it was getting really long.**


	2. Chapter 2

It had been exactly 17 days since Tamsin disappeared, and Bo was tired. They were all tired, tired of being constantly on alert, watching for danger at every corner. Kenzi let out a groan from where her head was lying against the bar of the Dal. "Maybe Mr. Odin dude isn't actually gonna show?" her muffled voice piped up hopefully from underneath her hair.

Hale patted her on the back, keeping his eyes on one of Trick's ancient texts he's flipping through. "Yeah lil mama, that'd be real nice of him." Kenzi just groaned again.

Dyson strode into the bar, but his slumped shoulders told them he didn't have any good news. "Sorry Trick," he sat down at the bar, pulling a sheaf of papers out of his jacket pocket and dropping them onto the table. "That was the last of my sources. Nobody has any knowledge on how to get away with challenging a god."

"We aren't challenging him; we just need some way to get him to leave us alone, preferably without kidnapping anybody."

"Or killing any of us," Kenzi added morosely from where she was resting her chin on the bar top. Trick sent her a disapproving look, and she protested, sitting up.

"Hey, Trickster, newsflash! We do not have an actual plan, no matter how hard we try to spin it that way," Kenzi looked around at the others. Dyson's clenched jaw was a clear indicator that he disapproved of their unpreparedness as well. "Dudes, we need _something_."

"I agree, and no offense Kenz, but when our best idea is your booby trapping him Home-Alone style, there's gonna be some trouble. This fight isn't going to go well for us." Bo slammed her book shut and glared at it as if it had personally offended her.

Trick spoke up, his voice low. "I'm sorry, but – I don't know what to do. I know you aren't comfortable with this, but I see no way to get around this. I'll be honest with you here Bo, I've never taken on a god before. I don't know anyone who has and lived to tell the tale." He waved his hands helplessly towards the stacks of books lying all around the bar. As soon as Tamsin had left, he had closed the Dal indefinitely until they cleared up this whole situation.

"Maybe Lauren will find something in the Light archives." Trick didn't look too inclined to agree, and Bo put her hands on the bar top, anxious about the threat looming above their heads.

"Come on Trick, there has to be something else, some kind of weakness. Everyone has to have a weakness. Even the gods." Even as the words left her mouth, Bo winced internally at how naïve she sounded. But nobody called her on it, and she was hit with a wave of emotion. Tamsin would have called her on it. Tamsin would have rolled her eyes and insulted her with her own brand of sarcasm. But Tamsin wasn't here.

No, Tamsin was off traipsing around the world, keeping Odin off their backs. And having learned her motives and what she assumed was most of the story, Bo had almost completely forgiven her, and if she was given another she definitely wouldn't push her away again. She didn't know what she would do, but if there was a next time, Tamsin was staying.

Trick sighed and shook his head. "Sorry Bo, but even in the Fae world, the Gods aren't really well-known for any weak spots they may possess. The only possible lead I have to go on is this old creation myth." Trick pulled a heavy old book over to the center of the bar top away from the other stacks. He flipped through it for a moment before he located the page.

"As the story goes, when all the gods were created, the world was only partially formed, with everything still in chaos. At the same moment they were given their immense power, there was one weapon forged that could defeat them; it could bring about their downfall, if the need arose. This was because there can never exist such a power imbalance as the gods having absolutely zero weaknesses. Everyone has a weakness, everyone's abilities have a downside." He rolled his eyes a little bit. "Of course that's just how the story goes."

Bo leaned over on her forearms, peering over at the book. Next to the text about Odin, there was an illustration of a Valkyrie, ready to ride off to battle, sword held high above her head. Physically, the proud woman in the book looks nothing like the Valkyrie Bo knows, but still the resemblance is almost too easy to see. It was in the hard glint in her eyes, the noble tilt of her head, the determined set of her shoulders. Bo wondered if all Valkyries looked like that, along with the haunted look in their eyes.

"By now, provided that these specific weapons do exist and aren't just a made up part of these stories, the gods would have located them and had them destroyed. Seeing how they were around when these objects were created, chances are they wouldn't have left them lying around for all these millennia. If they were real, we wouldn't be able to find them.

"But there has never been proof for any of this. It's all just a myth."

Hale snorted. "Yeah, it just sounds like some story a bunch of poor saps made up to make themselves feel better about havin' to face down a god." Kenzi clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, hate to break it to ya bud, but we're the poor saps hoping for it now."

Trick sighed again and rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know how to defeat Odin. I don't even know how to avoid this fight with minimal losses, I don't see any way out of it at all."

Bo looked down miserably. "Well, there has to be a way."

Dyson nodded resolutely. "We'll just have to keep looking." Kenzi groaned again, and they all went back to the ancient books.

* * *

The lights flickered and everybody tensed, looking around. "Over here," a deep voice singsonged from the entranceway. There was a man standing there under the arch, dressed in a sharp suit and wearing a self-satisfied smirk on his face. As Bo stood, preparing for an attack, she registered the strangest feeling. The man seemed to be radiating a kind of power, spreading like a shock wave and reverberating deep in the back of her head, the kind that made you instinctually want to stay away out of some deep-rooted need for self-preservation. She clenched her teeth took a deep breath. It was a strange feeling, and it seemed to be urging her to relax, to lower her weapons. But at the same time, the soothing vibrations had a feeling of inherent wrongness, like they shouldn't exist at all.

"I'm guessing you would be Odin?" Bo blinked as the tightness that had been threatening finally settled deep in her chest, and she was gripped with despair. She knew how unrealistic it was to hold on to the hope that Tamsin would somehow make it out alive. If she was being honest a part of her was still hoping that Tamsin would come striding in through the door, smirking and mocking them for thinking she wouldn't make it back. But Odin being here meant that he had caught Tamsin, and made an example of her. And now he had come for them.

"I have to tell you, I was expecting a bit more of a welcome." The man straightened his suit jacket. "Honestly, what kind of challenge is this going to be?" He gestures at all of them, on their feet and wielding an assortment of weapons. "I mean, from the way that Valkyrie resisted, I had just assumed she was protecting something worth my time."

He shrugged and slid his hands into his pockets, leaning casually against the wall, "Tamsin was always such a good judge of character, but to make such a foolish mistake," he shook his head and sighed wistfully. "And she really was my best Valkyrie, such a shame."

"She was our friend!"

Dyson growled, his clawed hands already partially outstretched. "You're a sick bastard."

Odin laughed at that. "Oh my, I can see you all have such high opinions of me. I would argue, but, well," his smile widened, showing bright white teeth, "I suppose I'm not exactly the nicest guy around. But I do have one thing going for me right now!"

He looked pleased, especially when Bo moved forward and spat out, "What could you possibly have in your favour?"

His grin was full of malice. "This." He tilted his head to the side, nodding towards a spot against the wall, and Bo narrowed her eyes, glancing cautiously over. Odin took his hand out of his pocket and snapped his fingers. Bo felt her friends stiffen, bracing themselves for any attack coming their way.

There was no immediate effect, but slowly a roiling black cloud appeared near the wall, slightly in front of the intruder's feet but still well within reaching distance.

"For you see," Odin continued conversationally as the smoke cleared and an inert figure appeared sprawled on the ground, "She's still alive."

Bo caught sight of Tamsin's face, partially obscured by strands of bloody blonde hair, and froze, not sure if it was some kind of trick. The man raised an eyebrow at her expression. "Oh yes, I assure you, it's really her. Ask your dog there, I'm sure he can identify her." Bo angled her head towards Dyson, knowing he was standing slightly behind her left shoulder, while keeping one eye on Odin and one eye on the person on the floor.

"It's her, Bo," he reassures her lowly in her ear, and she can hear the note of incredulity in his voice.

Overwhelmed, she started in the direction of the unconscious blonde, but only made it half a step before she's stopped in her tracks, unable to move. Struggling against the unseen force, she glares at Odin, who is holding one palm out towards her, assuming correctly that he's the one keeping her in place. She can tell by the curses being muttered behind her that she isn't the only one being immobilized.

She turned her attention back to Odin, who appeared entirely uninterested in what was happening across from him. "What did you do to her," she asked, jaw clenched. She could feel the others behind her and knew that they were waiting for her to react, ready to follow her lead.

Tamsin was sprawled on her side, and Bo could tell just by the laboured way she was breathing that she had at least a couple of cracked ribs, probably even broken. Her head was lying limply and she could easily see the lines of exhaustion on her face. She had a long nasty-looking cut on her leg, ripping right through her jeans, and her clothes were covered in dirt and dried blood. There was no question that Tamsin has been tortured.

"Oh, you know, little bit of this, little bit of that," he flicked his fingers dismissively in the direction of the blonde. He looked up at all of their glares and rolled his eyes, making it seem like he was doing them a huge favour by granting them any explanation. "You see, as I'm sure you all know, Valkyries have the power to make you doubt everything. I –" he paused to grin, and the buzzing in Bo's head intensified. "I can make you believe things instead.

"For example, say, that your entire body was on fire."

An ear-splitting scream came from Tamsin, and Bo's head snapped towards her in time to see her body arching off the floor, her face twisted in pain. She thrashes onto her back, exposing the large bruise discolouring part of her face, and entirely too much blood that appeared to originate from a gash on her forehead. Before Bo could do anything in reaction, either go try to help Tamsin or go for Odin, he waved his hand again.

"Or that you've been buried alive and are now breathing dirt." Bo watched in horror as Tamsin curled in on herself, chest spasming. "Or, say, your lungs were full of water and you're drowning from insid–"

"Alright, we get it!" Bo cried out in desperation. "Leave her alone!"

Odin smirked at her one last time before lowering his hand, and Tamsin fell back to the floor with a whimper, her head hitting the wall behind her with a sickening thump and lolling to the side. "So what's your move going to be? I've heard of your reputation, succubus, always coming through with something just in time to save the day. Whatever you may or may not have up your sleeve –" he eyed them all with an expression of distaste, "though judging from this little display of opposition, I somehow doubt you have much of a plan on how to proceed. Know this – I can kill the Valkyrie, for good, before you will even have time to blink."

"Okay, look," Bo lowered her arms slightly, loosening her grip on the knives. She tried to relax her jaw as well to seem less hostile, but she wasn't particularly successful. "She's not just a Valkyrie, whatever that means to you. Her name is Tamsin." She stared at him defiantly, but lifted one of her hands to rub at her face, steeling herself.

"How about this? Tell us what you want? Maybe we can reach a compromise here. One where everybody lives." Her eyes flicked to Tamsin, checking to see that her chest was still moving. As long as she was still breathing, they could get her back.

Odin laughed, and Bo flinched involuntarily. She had never heard anything that grated on her ears like that. "Okay then," he laughed again, although she failed to see what was amusing him so much. "You come with me and she goes free, succubus."

Bo froze, and everyone behind her erupted in protests.

"What?!"

"Surely there must be some other way –"

"If you think there's any chance in hell we're going to –"

"_Hell_ no, you sick son of a –"

Odin waved his fingers dismissively, "Alright that's enough from the lot of you," and all the sound abruptly stopped.

"So what do you say, succubus?" Bo looked behind her at her enraged friends, then looked again at Tamsin lying on the ground. Though she would admit that she wasn't always the brightest person in the room, she wasn't dumb all the time, and right now she knew they had very few options available to them.

"What exactly is it you want with me?" She asked carefully.

"You don't know your own power, succubus. All I want is to help make the most of it."

"Yeah, like that doesn't sound like some creepy-ass plot to use her to take over the world or anything," she heard Kenzi mutter behind her, and a ball of dread settled in her stomach.

"If I did go with you, they would all be safe? Let Tamsin go, and leave them be?"

There came a cough, and a low groan, and then Tamsin's voice croaked, "No way sweet cheeks, you're not doin' that."

"Tamsin?" Bo snapped her head towards the blonde, who just groaned again in response. She was still on her back lying on the ground and had a hand pressed against her stomach, but she was moving.

"I know what stupid-ass plan is running through your mind right now," the blonde struggled to sit up, using the wall as leverage, and Bo rushed to her side. It meant turning her back and leaving her vulnerable to Odin, but at this point she didn't much care. He seemed to want her alive, and her friends would guard her back.

Tamsin's muscles strained as she tried to move herself, and Bo hesitated, unsure of how she could help. She appeared to be almost covered in cuts and bruises, though it was hard to tell underneath all the caked-on filth. She was wearing the same clothes as the day she had come to her house and confessed everything.

Tamsin spoke again through gritted teeth, eyes nearly crossed with the effort she was exerting to pull herself off the floor. "You are not going through with it. Let me tell you, I did not go through all of this just for you to give yourself up." With Bo's help, she got in an upright position and slumped heavily against the wall, tipping her head back and closing her eyes. Bo ran her fingers lightly over her face, noting the scrapes and bruises, trying to catalogue her other injuries. Tamsin started at the contact, but let her face relax and cracked one eye open to shoot Bo a look that clearly said that she was exhibiting her own special brand of stupid and that she found it especially exasperating.

"Why did you do this, Tamsin?" Bo whispered to her.

Tamsin's mouth quirked up, and Bo couldn't quite understand the message behind the smile. "Can't let him take you, succubus," Bo is struck by how different that word sounds coming out of her mouth instead of Odin's. "I know what he'd do." Tamsin sucked in a laboured breath and opened both her eyes, looking into hers. "I won't let it happen." There is a surety in her voice, and Bo has to wonder what happened while she was gone.

They stared at each other, but then Tamsin snapped her gaze to Odin, standing behind Bo. She sneered at him as best as she could with a massive bruise covering her entire left cheek and a split lip, letting ice infuse her tone.

"Leave them alone."

"You aren't really in a position to be negotiating now, are you?" He said it as if talking to a small child. She continued to glare at him, and he raised an eyebrow at her, quietly reprimanding her for this small show of defiance. To reinforce his position, he wiggled his fingers at her again, and Tamsin gasped as her throat closed off. She gasped and folded over, her head near the floor as she struggled, her chest heaving painfully.

Bo was seriously considering cutting this guy's hand off, god or not.

After a moment, Odin lowered his hand, and Tamsin lifted her head to glower at him, this time leaning heavily against Bo to stop herself from tipping over. "Seriously dude, that's really starting to get old." Bo could tell from the face she pulled that she had meant for the sentence to come out a lot more threatening and a lot less shaky than it did. Pushing herself up again, she sucked in a breath.

"And," she straightened up, but hissed when she pulled something, "I actually am in a position to be negotiating. Just a little bit." She touched a hand to her forehead, feeling around the bloody cut on her temple before pulling her hand back and grimacing at the blood that came away on her fingers.

"See, spending all that time imprisoned by you, a girl picks up a couple of things."

Odin raised an eyebrow. "Things like what?"

Tamsin sucked in another shaky breath and leant her head back against the wall where she was propped up. "Like this," she closed her eyes and winced, then snapped her hand open and thrust it forward. Some kind of glowing orange energy ball formed, the light it was giving off so bright Bo had to shield her eyes, and Tamin sent it shooting straight towards Odin. Bo would be more confused as to what was happening, except Tamsin was screaming in pain again.

Odin yelled out, partially in pain and partially in surprise as the energy ball hit him right in the stomach. It would have been a cause enough to throw a freaking celebration, except all the bones in Tamsin's hand just shattered and Bo was almost certain that her skin was starting to burn.

She was slipping down the wall, and Bo quickly catches her, cradling her battered body in her arms. Tamsin closed her hand and clutched it close to her chest, and Odin looked down at her incredulously. He was pressing a hand to his singed dress shirt, eyes wide but completely unconcerned even as blood slowly dripped from between his fingers.

"But that's impossible. How did you get – where did you even – how did you hide it?"

Tamsin tried to wipe some sweat out of her eyes, only succeeding in smearing the grime and blood around on her forehead. "It's hidden exactly one second out of sync with this world. You know very well that Valkyries are capable of travelling between planes." He gaped at her, and she smiled happily back, a wicked gleam in her eye.

"That man over there, the barkeep? I've just granted him access to all the rest of the pieces, and you don't want to mess with him. You may not know who he is, but you can sense the power coming off of him. I know. I did too."

Odin sputtered some more, apparently unable to grasp that Tamsin had just gained the upper hand. Bo realized that this must be the weapon Trick had told them about, the only one in the whole of creation with the power to destroy him. Her eyes widened. As far as leverage went, she had to admit that this was pretty good.

He was beginning to lose his composure. "But how did you even get it? I had it locked away where no one could get to it. And it isn't like you were able to go sneaking around," he was starting to look slightly unhinged, his right eye developing a twitch.

"You know that Freya has always supported the underdog. You would do well to stop underestimating your wife Odin, especially after all these years. Plus she owed me like three favours."

Her words became more stilted as she began to speak more formally, her accent changing to resemble a northern European one.

"Now you will leave." Her breathing steadied and she seemed to sit taller, straightening up a little in Bo's hold. "You will never try to harm Bo or any of the people she cares about, directly or indirectly, ever again. None of her loved ones, none of her descendants, none of their loved ones, nobody that has any connection to her at all. No hiring people, no threatening, scheming, plotting, no thought of it in any way. Nothing, do you understand me?" Bo looked her over, noting the feverish tint to her face, and knew that Tamsin would collapse the moment her adrenaline ran out.

"If I have even the slightest suspicion, I will come after you, my own life be damned. Are we clear?" And in that moment, dirty and exhausted and probably in unimaginable pain, she looked just like the picture of the magnificent Valkyrie riding into battle in Trick's old book.

Odin eyed at her, no doubt trying to judge her threat level. Finally he inclined his head, smoothing back his hair and standing tall. "Very well. I accept these terms, Valkyrie." He narrowed his eyes and looked them over, flickers of his conflict between showing traces of rage and respect showing on his face. He scanned the rest of the bar, before giving Bo a curt nod and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

When it disappeared Tamsin let out a huge puff of air and slumped down as far as she could go and still be considered sitting. "Well," she mumbled, her eyes barely staying open, "I've definitely been exiled now."

Bo let out a strangled laugh and bent over her, inspecting the burnt flesh of her hand. Gently poking it, she looked up and brushed some hair out of Tamsin's face. "So," she started, "you're not dead." She searched her eyes. "I'm glad."

Tamsin shot her a glassy-eyed smile, "Me too, succubabe. Me too." Her words started to slur, and Bo knew that the exhaustion was catching up with her.

Bo just shook her head. She now had Tamsin's blood spotting her hands and arms, and knew that she needed medical attention. Miserably, she looked her over again, her hands hovering uselessly. "Why'd you do it, Tamsin? Why did you do all this? I mean, not that I'm not grateful, because I am. You probably saved all our lives, you definitely saved mine, but," she waved her hands helplessly, "you could've _died_. So why'd you do all this?"

Tamsin just shook her head slowly. She had many reasons for doing this, and some she couldn't even articulate if she tried. "I – maybe I wanted to do something good for a change. Be the good guy."

Bo gave her a watery smile and smoothed her hair down. "Well, you made a good choice." She looked up at the others who were crowding around her.

"Come on Bo," Dyson offered her a hand to help her up, "We have to get her to a doctor."

She stood up slowly and watched as Dyson carefully gathered the Valkyrie up in his arms. She was barely conscious, and they all started hurrying to the door.

They had all survived. Tamsin was going to rest up and recover, and then they would celebrate surviving Odin. The craziest thing Tamsin had ever pulled, and it had worked. And now she was here to stay. Bo's family was safe. They were going to be fine.


End file.
